[Koha] Automatic generation of Control Number and other numbers

[Katrin Fischer]

Hi Susanna,

welcome to the community! I hope I can help a bit with some or your 
questions:

There are several cataloging plugins that you can use or use as a base 
to create your own.

For inventory numbers:

Go to: Administration > MARC bibliographic frameworks > [pick framework] 
 > 952 > MARC structure > Edit subfields > i > Other options > Plugin

Candidates for inventory numbers are:

- stocknumber.pl
- stocknumberAV.pl
- stocknumberam123.pl

We usually use a plugin based on stocknumberAV.pl. For this one you 
create an authorised value category INVENTORY. Then for each year you 
add a new entry, for example:

code: A
description: 1

After activating a plugin, '...' will appear next to the input field in 
the item form. Enter the code of your authorised value and click on 
them. The inventory number will be automatically generated as A 
0000000002. Next time you click the next number will be generated etc. 
stocknumberAV will only work with prefixes/codes that are uppercase 
words. With this plugin every number can only be assigned once, but you 
might get 'holes' if you don't save an item after using the plugin.

stocknumberam123.pl also uses uppercase word prefixes/codes, but looks 
for the highest/last value in the db and generates the next value from 
there. No need for the authorised value. If you have more than one 
person cataloguing at the same time this might result in the same number 
used for multiple items.

stocknumber.pl doesn't need an AV value either and just generated a 
number without a prefix/code. It depends on your existing inventory 
numbers on how well this will work.

You won't need to assign a 001 unless you want to link bibliographic 
records using the UseControlNumber system preference (7xx$w -> 001). 
There is currently no plugin that can assign the biblionumber to 001 
automatically and it probably wouldn't work well right now, because the 
biblionumber only exists after saving the record for the first time.

Using your inventory numbers as barcodes should not cause any problems 
as long as they are unique.

Hope that helps,

Katrin



On 27.07.2018 14:10, bartsch at bauinternational-berlin.de wrote:
> Dear Koha community,
>
>   
>
> My name is Susanna Bartsch, one-person librarian at Berlin International
> University of Applied Sciences. I’m migrating to Koha, planning to go into
> production with an own database from mid-September on. For the time being, I
> have been using a provisional Koha instance – kindly provided by Michael
> Kühn last June – to learn to use Koha. I guess I’ll be writing rather often
> to this list in the next months, asking for your expertise. My questions
> will surely be of a very basic nature, for which I apologize in advance.
>
>   
>
> The first part of my first question is about automatic generation of strings
> with incremental numbers, specifically:
>
> *	in bibliographic records: Control Number (MARC field 001);
> *	in item records: Inventory Number (field i).
>
>   
>
> I have been closely reading the Koha 18.05 manual and this list’s archive,
> and I found many, many central and helpful features I’m successfully
> experimenting with. But I don’t seem able to find any conclusive information
> about the automatic generation of Control Number and Inventory Number.
>
>   
>
> The second part of my question is: Is it possible – and advisable – to
> automatically have the following correspondences:
>
> *	Control Number (MARC field 001) = Koha Record Number, but preceded
> by some zeros,
>
> e.g. Koha Record Number 1 --> Control Number 0000001;
>
> *	Inventory Number (field i) = Barcode (field p),
>
> e.g. 2018/0001?
>
>   
>
> Perhaps important:
>
> *	I’m probably not migrating the old Control Numbers.
> *	My predecessor didn’t record Inventory Numbers.
>
>   
>
> Many thanks in advance for any help!
>
>   
>
> Kindly,
>
> Susanna
>
>   
>
> --
>
> Susanna Bartsch, MA
> Head of Library
>
>   <mailto:bartsch at bauinternational-berlin.de>
> bartsch at bauinternational-berlin.de
>
>   <mailto:library at bauinternational-berlin.de>
> library at bauinternational-berlin.de
>
> Phone +49 (30) 8105808-15
>
>   
>
> Berlin International University of Applied Sciences
>
> (former BAU International Berlin University of Applied Sciences)
>
>   
>
> Heinrich-Heine-Str. 15
>
> 10179 Berlin, Germany
>
> New address from September 2018:
>
> Salzufer 6
>
> 10587 Berlin, Germany
>
>   
>
>   
> <https://www.bauinternational-berlin.de/en/university/academic-units/library
> https://www.bauinternational-berlin.de/en/university/academic-units/library
>
>   
> <https://www.bauinternational-berlin.de/hochschule/hochschulstruktur/bibliot
> hek>
> https://www.bauinternational-berlin.de/hochschule/hochschulstruktur/biblioth
> ek
>
>   
>
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